Happy Spring!

The first day of spring was this week, but we've had a VERY mild winter and already a taste of some very warm weather. It was in the 80s all last week. It's also been very dry, but we've finally gotten some rain this week.

Last weekend, we took advantage of the low 80s temps to do some yard/landscaping work. No big projects outdoors this year, because we're working on a big one indoors (more on that later), as well as the adoption. We just did some clean-up and getting things looking nice for summer.

We trimmed a few shrubs that were very mis-shapen and have been bugging us since last summer. Not sure if spring is the right time for trimming shrubs, but they look so much nicer now. (And how awesome to see blooming daffodils already! Only one of these was blooming last weekend, the others all grew more and opened up this week.)

We trimmed off last year's hosta leaves, and found the fresh purple growth just starting to come up. We also dug the leaves out of the rhubarb, and pulled back some the rocks and landscaping felt to find some new growth. They didn't look too good after growing up under the rocks and felt, but luckily they were looking better the next day and even better yesterday when I took these photos. (Not happy about the weeds along the foundation though - need to get those, but they're thistle, so I couldn't just yank them up with my bare hands.)

Sunday afternoon we cleared out last year's weeds and vegetables from the garden, and tilled up the soil a bit. I even got some lettuce, spinach, and onions planted. I think this is the earliest we've ever had any planted. The rain this week brought back a few weeds, but with the bulk of them gone, if we go out every few days and yank the new ones we *should* be able to keep on top of it.

When the garden was planted, I retreated to the shade, cleaned up the brush from last year's daylillies, and pulled the dried flowers off my hydrangea, while the little kids scrubbed the window well cover. I REALLY need to dig up some of these daylillies, just not looking forward to that. So if you are wanting some free daylillies, bring your shovel and buckets over - free to any home! They're the pretty orange-ish ones.

Such a productive warm spring weekend! Now, only if I'd remembered the sunscreen! So hard to think about this early in the season! At least it wasn't too painful.

Basement Finishing

We are working on finishing some basement living space this winter/spring.

I don't really have a true "before". Our basement had the exterior walls already framed. So it started with tearing down part of the wall by the stairs, and framing out the bedroom and closet, bathroom, the exterior of what will remain unfinished storage/mechanical room, and around parts of the ceiling and ductwork. The first photo is of the staircase, looking from about the center of the family/game room. The second photo is from the bottom of the stairs looking into the family/game room (before we cleaned it out for sheetrock and flooring). The third is from the bedroom with the bathroom on the left, hallway in the middle, then a small closet between the bedroom and the unfinished storage/mechanical room.

Then we had the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing done. I took a ton of photos after this phase, to help if we ever need to locate something that is now hidden inside a wall. But not much to post. Here's one looking from the family/game room towards the bathroom. There's going to be a small (5-ft) kitchenette on the outside of the bathroom, with a sink, under-counter fridge, microwave, and cabinets.



Then sheetrock, and it starts to look like actual rooms! The first two photos are the family/game room. The sofas/tv will be in the half by the stairs, and a pool table in the back half. The next two are of the bedroom - the first looking from the bedroom door towards the window, which is on the back side of the house. Then from inside the bedroom, looking back towards the hallway and bedroom closet. This last one is looking from the kitchenette area back into the family room. There is a closet under the stairs that we plan to use to store the kids' toys.


Next was painting, lighting, and flooring. We went with the same light neutral paint color for the family/game room and the bedroom. The bathroom paint we decided to go darker. We decided to do the entire basement floors in tile - all the same for the family/game room, hallway and bedroom, and a different tile for the bathroom. We'll probably put carpet on the stairs, but not until the rest is finished. (Somehow, I didn't get photos of the paint or lighting before the tile started went in, so here's all of it.) Tile was all installed in this photos, but the grout was only about 3/4 complete. What a difference the grout makes! Apparently our basement floor was VERY uneven, and you could really tell once the tile was laid. But the grout hides a lot of that. Once we get it furnished and a few area rugs in here, it'll be mostly unnoticeable.

I didn't realize that you couldn't see the lighting fixtures very well in these photos. There are ceiling fan lights in the family room and the bedroom. The bathroom has a 4-light fixture. The toy closet under the stairs has a simple globe just inside the door, and we put a wall light near the bottom to help light it up under the shelving. The pool table light isn't installed yet, and the others are cans. I'll try to get better photos once the cabinets, doors, and trim start to go in - they're going to be working on cabinets and finish plumbing this weekend, now that the grout is finished (well, mostly - they still have to scrub the floor yet too).

Adoption Update, GLA Donations

No, we don't really have any news. However, we've been hearing from a couple different sources, that families who don't need to have dispensation, could get IBESR approval in as little as 6 weeks to 2 months. Yikes! That one was awesome to hear, but also threw us for a loop!

When we first heard this, it was information from the IBESR director, stating that she wants to have approvals done in 2 months. That'd be awesome - but sounded kind of like a pie-in-the-sky compared to having been in IBESR for 11 months for Elijah & Josephine's adoption! Then I heard from other adopting families that they know of families that didn't need dispensations (which we don't either) were out in 6-8 weeks. I'm still having a hard time believeing it, but God's bigger than this, and will receive all the glory should we get some awesome news soon!

We went in to IBESR around February 7th. Six weeks would have put us at this week! Two months puts us at April 7th! Our agency wants us to try to travel as soon as possible after we get out of IBESR, so as not to hold up the adoption process. Of course, we do as well! However, we do have three little but very important obligations we have to make plans for, as well as two full-time jobs to give a little bit of notice to before we're gone and completely unavailable for a whole week. We have started contacting people and making indefinite plans and indefinite contingency plans, so that hopefully we'll be able to travel within a couple weeks of when we're notified of IBESR approval.

Also, around the time we started hearing of the 6-week to 2-month timeframe, we also read blogs regarding some needs at James' orphanage (see here, and clarifications here and here). They are struggling financially with general fund expenses. The general fund is what they use to buy formula, diapers, water, pay nannies' and drivers' salaries, etc. They are asking for prayers that God would lead donors to GLA, for financial donations and donations of goods.

So, combining the need, and our trip that possibly could come up in the next couple months, our thought was to spread the news, and collect donations for us to pack our extra suitcases with. On previous trips, we've had to pack clothing, food, and diapers for Elijah & Josephine, as they stayed with us at the hotel, in addition to donations for the orphanage. On this trip, James will not be staying with us, and we won't be responsible for his care, so we're hoping to use our extra space to help out GLA. But we need your help, and we want to give others the opportunity to bless GLA as well.

So, go here to see a list of needs that GLA has. We'd like to start collecting some of these items to take with us. I talked with Tom, and he said that the highest priority need right now is probably soy formula, and formula made specially for premies. Likely we won't be able to fill our bags with just formula, due to weight restrictions, so we'd also like to collect diapers as well. We'll collect as much as we can, and when it comes time to fill our bags, if we don't have enough room for it all, we'll find a way to get it to Colorado for the container shipment later this spring or summer.

Taxes are Done!

Do you have your taxes done? April 15th is approaching quickly!

We just finished ours. Federal was E-filed. Our state return is ready to be mailed today! It has to be mailed because of some adoption expense documentation that has to be included.

Can't wait to get our refunds back. We're hoping to have them in time to use for our Haiti trip. Don't know when that will be yet.

Are you getting a refund? If so, do you:

• already have it spent?
• have it earmarked for something?
• Or are you going to save it?

Kaylen's Projects

In Kaylen's 3rd grade class, the teacher assigns month-long projects for the kids to work on.

In September she had a geography project where she had to create a continent. Kaylen came up with a great idea to do her theme based on pasta. The continent was named "Noodle fonala", with noodle-themed countries. It was in the shape of a wide fettuchini noodle, had a forest and swamp, the seas and lasagna reefs. It turned out really cute! (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Then they had a "Simple Machines" invention-type science project. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it when she was working on it and doing her final testing at home. Her goal was to knock a cherry off the chair, into a bucket, using a combination of at least three simple machines. She actually ended up using a few more machines (including a complex one) than she'd put in her write-up, as none of us caught them as "Machines." (This wasn't a strength for any of us, but Daddy did awesome guiding her on this one!) She ended up using a ruler as a lever to roll a toy truck, to knock down the first in a series of dominoes, then knocked the last domino off the edge of the table, down a paper towel tube, then more dominoes on the chair, knocking a cherry off the chair and landing in a bucket. She had to work on the size of the bucket, as the cherry was tiny and the precision wasn't the best. She also had to work on spacing and placement of the dominoes to get them to do what she wanted. All in all, it turnd out awesome!

They didn't do a month-long project for November or January because of the various testing they were doing. They didn't do one in December because of the short month/holidays.

Her project for February was a book report. She had to read the book and write a one-paragraph summary, and answer a few other questions about the book. The trick was doing in first person, as if she was the main character in the book. Then, on the last day of the month, she was to come to school prepared to present her summary and the answers to two other questions. She struggled a bit with summarizing (given her awesome memory for details!), and with writing the answers to the questions by rephrasing the question as part of the answer so that you could read the answer without knowing the question. But, she did awesome. She was nervous to present, but once we got the costume figured out, she was excited. This is Kaylen as Grace, from Saving Grace by Priscilla Cummings. Grace was an 11-year-old when the great depression hit.

March is also a short month because of spring break, but over spring break their homework is to be doing research for a partner non-fiction writing project about animals. Kaylen and her partner chose "Big Cats" as their animals to write about. In early march, they also did a coral reef science project. Not all of them turned out well (apparently too much shaking), but it sounded like a fun experiment. They sent out the recipe and instructions for us to try it at home, but we haven't tried it.

Tonight's Car Conversations

Me: "Kaylen, your soccer practice is cancelled for tonight."
K: "Awww... Why?"
Me: "Because there are storms headed our direction, and you can't practice outside in lightening."
K: "Oh."
Josephine: "Is there a storm now?"
Me: "It will be soon. There was a thunderstorm when I left work, and it's coming this way."
J: "Oh."

... Topic Change ...

Me: "Kaylen, how was your day at daycare?"
K: "Good."
Me: "Uh, any more detail than that? Didn't you have visitors?"
(Spring break week they have fun activities for the school-age kids. Today's was a visitor from the Animal Rescue League.)
K: "Oh! Yeah! The Animal Rescue League came!"
Me: "Was there a speaker or any animals?"
K: "Yeah, there was this dog..."
Me: "THIS dog? What dog? Was there a speaker?"
K: "Yah, someone came with this dog..."
Me: "Oh, someone who works there brought a dog?"
K: "Yah, and he told the story about the dog."
Me: "So a guy brought a dog in for the visit?"
K: "No, it was a woman, not a man. And that dog LOVED me! He, like, came over to me right when Lisa (daycare teacher) said I could pet the dog, and I didn't even go up there, so I petted him and then he rolled over and I scratched his belly, then I scratched behind his ear, but that was it because I had to let someone else take a turn."
Me: "Sounds like fun!"
K: "Oh, and they gave me a sticker and a bookmark and another paper. Please keep me safe. Don't forget my tag and microchip. What animal am I?"
Me: "What?"
K: "What animal am I describing?"
Me: "Oh, well, that could be just about any animal."
K: "Cat. Keep me indoors. Because they have a lot of stray cats come in. Do you know what animal that was, Mom?"
Me: "Didn't you just say it was a cat?"
K: "Nope, it was a dog." (Her mind goes WAY too fast!)
Me: "OK."
K: "Oh, and they have all kinds of animals, and you have to be ages 10-15 to volunteer but you have to have a parent right there with you. And if you're ages 16-17 you can volunteer but you have to have a parent authorization. And you have to buy a t-shirt first that says ARL, and you have to go there for two hours first to watch a movie."
Me: "Oh, yes, probably a training to teach you how to be safe and how to handle the animals."
K: "Yup!"

... Topic Change ...

Me: "Oh! I just saw lightning, right over there."
J: "Mommy, did you see lightening?"
E: "Yes, she said she did, right over there."
J: "Mommy, did you see lightening?"
Me: "What did I just say, Josephine?"
J: "Right over there?"
Me: "What did I just say Josephine?"
J: "You saw lightening"
Me: "Then why are you asking me a question that I already answered?"
J: "I don't know."
(This is a typical conversation - she likes to ask questions about what I was just talking about to someone else.)

... Topic Change ... a couple minutes later ...

J: "Mommy, are we going fast?"
E: "No!" (He likes to disagree with her to make her mad.)
J: "Mommy, are we going fast?"
E: "No, Josephine, that car right by us!" (Now he's not just being disagreeable, he's stating a fact, but she won't listen to him.)
J: "Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?" (I was purposely ignoring her to see if she could come up with an answer on her own, but she's persistent!)
Me: "What?"
J: "Mommy, um, uh, um, are we going faster?" (I was going the speed limit across town.)
Me: "Faster than who?"
J: "Faster than udder cars?"
Me: "No, there's a car right by us that's been right by us for a long time, see?"
(Of course, as soon as I say that, the other cars around us all slow down to turn, then we go past them.)
J: "Oh... But they're going that way."
Me: "Yup, but when you asked, they were right by us, going the same speed."
(She doesn't respond - must've been too complex to process.)

... Topic Change ... as we're pulling into the driveway ...

J: "Mommy, can you drive backwards again?"
Me: (laughing) "No, honey, not tonight."
J: "No, I mean, in the garage."
(This is in reference to me backing into the garage yesterday - she panicked at first, then thought it was hilarious!)
Me: "I know what you mean. I'm not going to do that today."
J: "Awwww... Why not?"
Me: "Because I only did that because I needed to unload the groceries and that made it easier.... anyway, I'm not going to be pulling into the garage today anyway," as we approach our house.
J: "Why?!" (panic-stricken again!)
E: "Uncle Duke's Here!" (He's here working on our basement, and has backed partially into our garage with his truck and with the tile saw set up in the garage.
(All the kids cheer!)

(Fun conversations, but Daddy wonders why I'm exhausted just from the 10-15 minute drive home from daycare! He doesn't frequently experience this trip.)

J's Recent Hairstyles

I haven't blogged about Josephine's hair styles for quite some time. Thought I'd share a few of her more recent hair styles:

Christmas hair:

















Just to show how fuzzy Christmas hair got after 6 weeks:













January - it took a long time to take out so many braids, so we went for simple. Josephine asked for buns, so buns she got!


Valentine's Day Hair - in progress:
This was the first time I'd every tried a shape, and it was so fun. She was so excited to show her Valentine's heart to everyone!





















The final product:
I wasn't excited with how the bottom looked. Those twists just kind of ended. Eventually I ended up pulling them together into a pony. Probably should have angled them straight down instead of having them all end in the middle would've looked better. But it still looked cute, and she was happy with it. I'd also originally planned to continue the twists towards the front too, but ran out of time, so I left it in the three chunky twists to match the heart-shaped twist. It worked fine.







Just to be silly:

















Pom-Pom hair (interim hairstyle):
I was in a hurry to take out the previous hairstyle, and make it look clean and cute for family pictures on Saturday morning. I knew I didn't have time to put it something fancy, so I decided to go somewhat free. For Josephine, free doesn't work too well, because her hair is so long. So we went with 4 ponies. These photos were taken at home after family pictures, lunch, and a nap, so it's a little matted down one one side. Can you tell which side she sleeps on? :)

It's amazing how much her hair shrivels up as it dries. Compare this to how long her twists/braids are in the previous photos! She got a ton of compliments on her "pom-pom" hair, at church Sunday, and again at daycare. We all marveled at how different she looks when she has big hair, as compared to when her hair is tightly pulled back. So cute!

But, it's so hard to comb through when it's been left free for any length of time. She cries when we have to comb through - no matter how gentle I try to be, and how much detangling/conditioning product I use. That, combined with the attention she got with the pom-pom hair, she was not very happy to be moving on to to another hairstyle already. We're working this week on a style themed for St. Patrick's Day. I'll post photos of that later. We're not quite done yet.

Valentines

We knew this when Kaylen was little, but we've especially re-learned it this week: Valentines are an awesome way for kids to learn how to write their names!

Elijah has been doing pretty well writing his first name for quite a while. He even knows how to spell it without looking. He'd been putting the dot on the bottom of his "i", but I think that is even corrected now.Josephine has really struggled writing her name. First, she just doesn't have great small-motor skills - still scribbles a lot instead of drawing things/shapes on blank paper. Second, she has a long first name. Third, she has a few really curvy letters that are hard to write. Also, she usually gets frustrated by how hard they are, and says, "I can't". But yesterday and today, the excitement of giving out Valentine cards (with candy!) to all of her friends at daycare, was just the motivation she needed to practice - and she's doing awesome!

We did these on Saturday - I wanted to work on this anyway. It wasn't so much fun, but they did pretty good (with some erasing to get them the right sizes and spacing).Last night, Daddy helped Josephine sign these. Helping her hold the pencil gave her just the confidence she needed.Tonight after supper, she got right to work on the rest of them. She was so cute, she kept hollering from the dining room, "Mommy, I made a 's'! I made my 'e'!" Then when she finished her whole name, she ran to show me each completed card. So fun!
Next up: the last name!

Adoption Update

Yes, look over at our sidebar...

Our agency notified us today that our dossier has been submitted to IBESR!

For those of you unfamiliar with Haitian adoptions, IBESR stands for Institut du Bien-Etre Social et Recherches, which translates to Institute of Social Well-Being and Research. Basically it is Haitian social services. They're looking at our dossier to determine if we meet Haiti's adoption requirements and if James is a good match for our family.

When we adopted Elijah and Josephine, our dossier was in IBESR for 11 months. Our agency has told us that they have had families approved by IBESR in 2 months, but they also have families who have been in IBESR for 8 months and still aren't signed out. The families that have waited longer are waiting for presidential dispensation - which is a signature allowing for a family exception to the adoption law.

Recently GLA's director attended a meeting at IBESR, where the new director of IBESR stated that it will not take more than 2 months to sign a dossier out of IBESR, and also that she is assigning a member of her staff to check up on dispensations. There is more detailed information about that meeting here.

We do not know if we will need dispensation. There is some confusion whether families with more than 2 children, or families with more than 2 biological children need dispensation. That is the only questionable part of the adoption law for us. Our agency is trying to get an answer from GLA's perspective, but we may not know until we are signed out of IBESR or until they request we get dispensation.

Please pray with us that our dossier's stay in IBESR will be short, and that we do not need dispensation.When we are out of IBESR, we will travel to Haiti to file immigration paperwork at the US Embassy, and also for two court appearances. We're excited to finally be "in-process" to adopt this adorable little guy, to meet him, and bring him home to join our family!

Tooth Fairy

Over the last 3 1/2 years, Kaylen has lost all four of her front baby teeth, both top and bottom. She has also lost her bottom canines, which I thought were going to get skipped over for the next teeth back and then lost after those. But she proved us wrong, and the dentist told us sometimes they come out first. (I can't remember if she's lost her top canines or not yet.)

Well, she lost the first of her baby molars last week. While I was fixing supper and she was doing her homework, she told me it was wiggly. About 10 minutes later it was out. She doesn't mess around, when they start wiggling, she works on them until they're out because they drive her nuts! The permanent was right there ready to poke through.

Elijah, on the other hand, has his first permanent tooth poking through his gums behind one of his bottom front baby tooth. He doesn't like the feeling of wiggling it - says it makes a noise and hurts, so he won't wiggle it unless I get on him about it. Is he going to be the one that the dentist has to pull his out?

Josephine was crying that night because she didn't have any wiggly teeth - felt left out. I tried to console her and tell her that she was younger, so it might be a while yet, to no avail. I also told her that I lost my first tooth at age 7, even though Kaylen was 5 when she lost her first tooth, and Elijah is now 5 and should be losing his first tooth, so you just never know...

So Kaylen knows... but she's playing along for the others. She asked me, "Is the tooth fairy real?" I hesitated. She said, "C'mon Mom, I know that fairies aren't real, so tooth fairies aren't either, right?" Then she looked me straight in the eye and asked me, "Just tell me, is it you that puts the money under my pillow?" I admitted it. Josephine was in the room too, so I tried to be discrete even though I didn't know if she was listening. Then I called her over to me, and told her she needs to play along - ah, the fun of having younger siblings.

Because of the knowledge of Mommy the tooth fairy, Kaylen didn't even mention the money the next morning! I was hoping she'd still play it up and pretend to be excited, in hopes of motivate her brother to keep wiggling his tooth. But no. So I had to pointedly play it up the next morning. So far though, not working. Any ideas to get a scared little boy to keep wiggling and pull that tooth out? His next dental check-up isn't for 5 months!